Unfairness in Reward Allocation in the Nigerian Public Sector Organizations: A Conceptual and Theoretical Analysis

The paper is a conceptual and theoretical literature review of articles and works that are relevant to reward allocation in public sector organizations. The paper reviews literature on organizations nature and characteristics; unfairness and fairness in reward allocation and notable theories of reward allocation. The paper reveals some of the unfairness in reward allocations to employees in public organizations and the unfairness of the factors in the performance appraisal used for reward allocation to employees in the public sector as: religious affiliation; ethnicity; corruption; intimidation/threat by superior officers; sexual harassment of female employees by superior officers; political pressure; God-fatherism and Federal Character Principle (FCP). The paper recommends that (1) States and Federal Government should address the unfairness and close the wide gap across hierarchical levels in their reward allocation to employees. (2) The Federal Government should increase its supervision on the States’ Governor in order to prevent them from their present inhuman practices of diverting to elections campaigns and their personal use, civil servants and teachers’ salaries and allowances that are statutorily allocated to them from the federation accounts

STOCHASTIC PREDICTION OF MONTHLY INFLATION RATES THROUGH KALMAN FILTERING

Inflation measure is an important indicator of the state of an economy and the desire to determine it ahead of “time” cannot be overemphasised. This paper presents a step-by-step algorithm to predict the would-be monthly inflation rate of the Nigerian economy, using Kalman Filtering Predictor (KFP). The ordinary structural model for a time series (structTS) is highlighted to “fairly” compete against our proposed KFP. The structTS is a powerful “competitor”, it is in recommended R package “stats” and used for fitting basic structural models to “univariate” time series. It is quite reliable and fast, and is used as a benchmark in some comparisons of filtering techniques, it is indeed the “predictor” to “beat”, yet our proposed KFP has more to “offer”. The pertinent statistics and pictorial representation of the results obtained, through both techniques, is highlighted for any “incorruptible” judge’s perusal. All of these are contained in the couple of illustrative examples that exhibit the steps involved in the proposed algorithm, using a hypothetical monthly inflation rate and the monthly inflation rates data (January, 2011 to June, 2014) of the Nigerian economy.     &nbsp

Development of a Refrigerant Recovery and Recycling Machine

Indiscriminate discharge of refrigerants into the atmosphere during servicing or overhauling of refrigerating systems by Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning (HVAC) Practitioners is one of the major contributing factors to ozone depletion and climate change. The objectives of this study are to: design, fabricate and evaluate the performance of refrigerants recovery and recycling machine. The machine with 19.44 kg/hr rated capacity produced at cost of N106, 503.00 (about USD 500) with locally sourced materials comprises: compressor, drier, capillary tube, solenoid valves, two (2) pressure gauges and heat exchanger as functional parts. In order to evaluate the performance of  this machine, R-12 and R-22 refrigerants were considered for its analysis and results showed that for every 1 kg refrigerant recovered and recycled it has average recovery and recycling efficiencies of 88.5 % and 85.68 % whilst recycling used refrigerant to 99.9 % of its original purity. Keywords: Refrigerants, Ozone Depletion, Global Warming, Recovery, Recycling, Performance evaluatio

MARKOV MODELS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS

Most real world situations involve modelling of physical processes that evolve with time and space, especially those exhibiting high variability. Such events that have to flow with time or space are called dynamical systems. The mathematical notions of a dynamical system serves to depict the flow of causation from past into future (Kalman 1960). In this study, Markov model which is a signal model based on the Markovian property with state space approach was adopted for the analysis of dynamical systems. The Nigerian monetary exchange rate data was used in the application with the use of R statistical software package. The study incorporated the Chapman-Kolmogorov equation in the construction of absolute limiting distribution of the system via the state variables. The procedure gives an easy and effective means of analysing complex and time varying dynamical systems. The study showed that the Nigerian monetary exchange rate is ergodic with stationary probability distribution. &nbsp

Smooth Transition GARCH Models in Forecasting Non-Linear Economic Time Series Data

The need to capture the heterogeneous and volatility nature of both financial and economic time series theory and modeling their behavior in practical work have stimulated interest in the empirical modeling of variances which forms the basis for this study. In the study we augmented GARCH models with smooth transition model by dropping the assumption of autoregression of the model; necessary theoretical frame work was derived and properties of the new model established and illustrated with foreign exchange rate data from Federal Republic of Nigeria (Naira), Great Britain (Pound), Botswana (Pula) and Japanese (Yen) against United States of America (Dollar). The smooth transition GARCH model is better than the classical GARCH model as there were reduction in the variances of the augmented model; this claim is confirmed by the empirical illustration with foreign exchange data. Within the group of smooth transition GARCH model, Logistic Smooth Transition is adjudged the best as it produced the least variance

IMPACT OF HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICT IN THE SURROUNDING VILLAGES OF OLD OYO NATIONAL PARK

The study assesses the impacts of Human-Wildlife conflicts in the surrounding villages in Old Oyo National Park (OONP), Nigeria. Two ranges out of the five ranges were used. Four villages were selected based on the distribution of primates and wildlife populations with each range producing two villages around Old Oyo National Park, were randomly selected for wildlife assessment. A total of 80 well-structured questionnaires were administered to the villagers with each getting 20 questionnaires respectively.  Data collected were subjected to inferential and descriptive statistics. Result shows that among other socio demographic characteristics tested against the impact of Human –wildlife conflict in the park, educational level and religion show significant difference (p<0.05). the buffer zone around the park has been extensively encroached; this made most of the surrounding villages to the park fall within the average distance of 2.6km. about 79% of the villages make use of fire wood for their household cooking. Major animals that intrude farmlands in the study areas include monkey (24%), Grasscutter (11%), Cattle (19%), Gorilla (12%), Antelope (6%), Cane rat (5%) and Rabbit (3%). Some of the crops attacked by the wildlife animals include; tubers (24%), tubers and vegetable (7%), tubers and fruits (36%), tubers, vegetable and fruits (3%), vegetable (7%), fruits (3%). All the respondents (100%) rated the level of attack and damages to their crops as high. &nbsp

ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION OF WILDLIFE TO BUSHMEAT MARKETS IN IBADAN, OYO STATE

This paper examined the economic contribution of wild animals to bushmeat trade in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Five prominent bush meat markets in Ibadan and its suburb were used for the study. The selection was based on the high intensity of bush meat marketing operations identified with the markets. All sellers in each market visited were interviewed which sum up to forty four respondents. Data were collected using structured questionnaire. Budgetary analysis was done to calculate costs and return of the bushmeat sellers. Income on mammals had the highest (₦5,755,600) per annum followed by the income on birds (₦858,000) per annum and reptiles (₦182,000). In the same pattern, percentage contribution indicates that mammals contributed 84% of the total income, while wild birds contributed 12% of the total income and reptile 3%. The net profit realized from the sales of mammals was ₦4,979,000 and ₦180,900 for wild birds. Cost and return analysis showed that sale of bushmeat is a profitable venture. In addition, mammals contributed more to the economy of the market than other two classes of animal found in the bushmeat market

Response of Growing Pigs to Diet Physical Form and Allzyme® SSF Supplementation in a Palm Kernel Meal-Based Diet

. The increasing cost of conventional feeds calls for the unconventional ones. The effect of Allzyme®SSF and diet physical form on performance, haematological and serum biochemical indices of growing pigs fed with palm kernel meal-based diet was determined. Twenty four growing pigs comprising of twelve male and twelve female weighing 8.95±1.01Kg were assigned into four dietary treatment groups involving dry mash diet, wet mash diet, dry mash diet+ Allzyme®SSF and wet mash diet+ Allzyme®SSF in a completely randomized design. After feeding experiment for six weeks, haematological and serum biochemical parameters were determined. Growth performance was observed on a weekly basis for six consecutive weeks. The results showed that the diet physical form and Allzyme®SSF supplementation in a palm kernel meal-based diet did not significantly affect the haematological and serum biochemical parameters; however weight gain and feed conversion ratio were significantly influenced by the diet physical form and Allzyme®SSF supplementation, thus making dry mash diet + Allzyme®SSF the best dietary treatment. The experiment showed that the diet physical form and Allzyme®SSF supplementation in a palm kernel meal-based diet did not have any negative effect on the growing pigs and growth performance was not hindered; therefore palm kernel meal-based diet in wet or dry mash form with or without Allzyme® SSF supplementation could be fed to growing pigs

Transformative Potentials of E-governance: The intrinsic role of Information and Communication Technology in Reinvigorating Public Service Delivery in Nigeria

Proffering solutions to developmental issues such as poverty, unemployment, high costs of governance and poor service delivery among others require changes to government processes through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). This paper examines the transformative potentials of e- governance vis-à-vis the intrinsic role of information and communication technology (ICT) in reinvigorating public service delivery in Nigeria. To accomplish the objective of this paper, systematic review of literature on these issues was presented and discussed. The paper deliberated that e-governance is more than just the visibility of government website on the internet. In other words, e-governance relates to restructuring the state’s administrative procedure and in ensuring that the government is more transparent, and service-oriented. Remarkably, public service delivery in Nigeria has been adjudged to be poor, and fall short of expectations of citizen. As a result it has become a theme of mockery because of its rigidity and after many years of effort in implementing reforms in public service, it costs too much to delivers very little, and the level of achievement is not sufficiently responsive and accountable. The paper concludes that public services reinforce the social contract between states and citizens and, as such, serve as indicator of wellbeing of the society. Therefore, for Nigeria to make progress; there is need to strengthening public service delivery via ICT. The paper recommends that effort should be intensified to ensure that e-governance bridge the digital divide through training and by adapting technologies that is accessible to all user groups